Moving across Figured Worlds: the integration of Physical Education, Literacy and the Visual in Cultural Spaces

Drawing upon the theories underpinning figured worlds, relational agency and multiliteracies, this paper demonstrates how teacher educators designed and implemented an interdisciplinary approach to enact literacy pedagogies in cultural spaces.This approach, a collaboration between teacher educators in Physical Education (PE) and English, was presented to a cohort of pre-service PE secondary teachers, with an aim of modelling strategies for use in their own teaching. Engaging with diverse artefacts in local cultural institutions, participants were encouraged to produce oral and written affective, personal and analytical responses. This approach was underpinned by literacy theory, including Luke and Freebody's Four Resources Model (1998). Aspects of multiliteracies theory were also drawn on, particularly in relation to visual, gestural and intertextual elements. The collaboration of PE and English teacher educators, and the integration of explicit literacy strategies into PE provided opportunities for all participants to build connections across disciplines and to interrogate preconceived understandings of curriculum boundaries. Furthermore, the approach aligns with the Australian National Curriculum statement that literacy should be integrated into all subject domains. This paper explores the ways in which particular 'figured worlds' of learning and teaching were disrupted and reconfigured by participants. Specific strategies implemented by the teacher educators are discussed and the results of these strategies are presented.